The little guys got excited every time they found them. They were all over the ground in almost every different color. At first they just put them in their pockets. This quickly turned into trading of different colors. Last year it got more complicated with trades and values and serious thought. But at the end of the summer most of the boys had to throw their BBs away. Mason really wanted to keep his so he did.
He wanted to give his friend Isaiah a gift one day last winter that meant a lot. That gift was his whole BB collection (box included)! That was all fine and dandy until this year's camping trips started again. He was starting to regret giving them away because he realized that Isaiah would have more bartering and trading power. I thought it was a great lesson! I encouraged him that it was a loving gift and (I'm pretty sure) well received. But he also learned to not just live in the moment and to plan ahead a little too.
This year was serious business. A major sub-society emerged with a very elaborate and well-planned economy running all around the adults as we camped. This time the boys came prepared with real boxes equipped with dividers, wells labeled with every color (and in Isaiah's case "exotic" for the ones that were very uncommon), and designs or writing on the outside.
The first thing the boys did when they got into camp was to look down and scour the place for BBs. At first they were excited for each find. Then it would turn into exclamations for the "rare" colors like brown, black, gold and shiny green. When the finds started to slow down, the trading began. Consideration was made for the size, quality, color, rarity, etc. They learned supply and demand with common BBs not worth as much and the more rare ones being traded for multiples of other kinds. Sometimes the dads teasingly got involved, ridiculing certain trades as absurdity and helping the kids to figure out sound trading strategies. During the last camp, Jason introduced borrowing and credit. He would take several of their BBs with the promise of giving them something even more coveted... bullet shells from the shooting range! I think they may have even charged interest for how long it took him to get the "merchandise" to them. Andrew even traded left over breakfast sausage (previously free for the kids) for BBs!
During the last 2 days the boys would set up "BB stores" and "BB auctions" in an attempt to get more business. There were rival businesses, competitive strategies like yelling out the "color of the day", and attempts at luring other customers away with amazing deals. Tjaden even paid Mason 2 BBs to go advertise for his store :) They changed their prices and deals every few minutes according to demand and desperation.
It was SO FUN to watch them think it all through and learn economics without even trying. I can't say that I learned as much about economics in high school as these little kids did in the forests of Oregon! It's been 3 years of this crazy, ever complex BB economy. I'm pretty sure no one is throwing their BBs away this year, and I know all of these little brains will be thinking all year about how to make a better deal and get more BBs next summer :)
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